After the Israeli military acknowledged its fire probably killed a U.S. citizen activist in the occupied West Bank, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday called on Israel to make "fundamental changes" in its actions in the territory.
Blinken called the killing of Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi "unprovoked and unjustified." President Joe Biden later called it an "accident."
Eygi was shot in the head during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the occupied West Bank last week.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was highly likely that she was "hit directly and unintentionally by IDF fire." The Israeli military expressed deep regret.
During a visit to London, Blinken told reporters that the investigation and eyewitness accounts show "that her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified."
"No one, no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views," he said.
"In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement," Blinken added.
An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment on Blinken's statements, according to Reuters.
Airstrike in Gaza
Gaza's health ministry said Tuesday an Israeli missile strike on a humanitarian area in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 19 people and wounded 60 others.
The ministry said rescuers had not yet been able to reach some of the victims who remained buried under sand and rubble.
The death toll was lower than an earlier number given by the Civil Defense, which said 40 people were killed.
Israel's military disputed the higher toll, while blaming Hamas for operating in humanitarian zones.
The attack happened in Mawasi, an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone just west of Khan Younis, where the Israeli military has told tens of thousands of Palestinians to evacuate.
The IDF said it struck a number of senior Hamas militants, including several commanders who were directly involved in the October 7 attack on Israel that began the war.
A Hamas statement denied its fighters were in the area.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the Israeli airstrikes in Mawasi.
"The use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas is unconscionable," spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. "Palestinians had moved to this area in Khan Younis in search for shelter and safety, after being repeatedly instructed to do so by the Israeli authorities. As the secretary-general has repeatedly said, there is no safe place in Gaza."
Cease-fire effort
Blinken said Tuesday that the United States will continue working with Qatar and Egypt to bridge remaining gaps in a cease-fire deal to end the conflict in Gaza as soon as possible.
"More than 90% of the issues have been agreed, so we're down to a handful of issues, not even a handful of issues that are hard but fully resolvable in our judgment," Blinken told reporters during a joint news conference in London with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Lammy, who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, said the UAE is "showing some forward-leaning in their commitment" to security guarantees in post-war Gaza. He stressed the need for a pathway to a two-state solution, emphasizing that there can be no role for Hamas in post-war Gaza.
U.N. chief Guterres said Monday that the United Nations has offered to help monitor any eventual cease-fire, but that it is unrealistic to think that the U.N. would directly administer the territory or provide a peacekeeping force.
"The U.N. will be available to support any cease-fire," he told the Associated Press in an interview but said he did not believe Israel would accept a broader role for the U.N.
As the Israel-Hamas conflict raged over the last 11 months, Israel accused a small number of U.N. workers of joining Hamas militants in their shock October 7 attack on Israel that started the war.
The October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel last year killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, although the Israeli military says the death toll includes several thousand militants.
Hamas has been designated a terror group by the U.S., U.K., EU and others.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of remaining hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
UN aid convoy detained
The U.N. said a convoy with a dozen staffers supporting the Gaza-wide polio vaccination campaign was detained by the IDF Monday at a checkpoint for over seven hours and two Palestinian staff were questioned by the military.
"The situation escalated quickly, with soldiers pointing their weapons directly toward our personnel in the convoy," U.N. spokesperson Dujarric said Tuesday. "The U.N. vehicles were encircled by Israeli forces, and shots were fired. The convoy was then approached by IDF tanks and bulldozers, which proceeded to ram the U.N. vehicles from the back and front, compacting the convoy with U.N. staff still inside."
He said one bulldozer dropped debris on the first vehicle, while Israeli soldiers threatened staff, making it impossible for them to safely exit their vehicles.
The two staffers were questioned in front of their colleagues and then released, Dujarric said.
"This incident – and the conduct of Israeli forces on the ground – put the lives of our staff in danger," Dujarric said. "It is critical that Israeli forces take measures to protect humanitarian staff and assets and to facilitate their work – this is what international humanitarian law requires."
Despite the incident, the polio vaccination campaign went ahead in northern Gaza on Tuesday. The U.N. hopes to vaccinate around 150,000 children under age 10 there through Thursday. Overall, the campaign has reached more than a half-million children so far in central and southern Gaza, after the poliovirus was detected in wastewater in the strip and one baby was diagnosed with the potentially crippling disease.
Correspondents Nike Ching and Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
